1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to medical instruments and catheters, and more particularly to improved catheters which physically block access to catheter puncture sites by infection-causing microbes, and which are structured so as to provide for the ease of use and administration thereof by medical professionals.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Infections resulting from catheters are responsible for numerous treatment complications, and in some cases, deaths of patients. This treatment factor is particularly troublesome, given the extensive usage of catheters. Normally, catheter infections are typically caused by contamination of the catheter hub, with progression of the bacteria or other microbes down the extra- and intra-luminal surface of the catheter, where they colonize on the skin, with subsequent progression of the microbes down the extra- or intra-luminal surface and into the bloodstream, resulting in localized and/or systemic infections in patients. Methods to reduce the number of catheter-related infections (CRIs) have included: strict insertion guidelines, sterile catheter materials, and topical antibiotic ointments applied at the catheter insertion site, chlorohexedine impregnated sponges which encircle the catheter at the catheter-skin interface, etc. These interventions have demonstrated varying degrees of efficacy. Despite these interventions, CRIs still remain a problem, particularly given the recent prevalence of MRSA-type infections which do not respond well to such anti-biotic treatments.
One attempt to preventing CRIs is disclosed in US Patent Publication Number 2009/0157000 to Waller, which purportedly gives some protection onto and around catheter insertion sites. However, this approach is deficient because it is limited in the extent of the physical barriers provided therewith. In particular, catheters are frequently manipulated by medical personnel such as nurses and physicians with bare hands or while wearing non-sterile gloves during the course of needed readjustments to catheters and insertion sites. Any such handling on the exposed portion of the catheter can still infect the surfaces of the catheter materials and lead to migration of infectious microbes into the insertion site. Moreover, approaches such as that proposed above can interfere with the necessary manipulating of catheters by medical professionals, especially because they are not “open access” in structure. In other cases, such as that seen with bladder catheters, the approach described by Waller may not even be used with various types of catheters, especially when using bladder catheters. The lack of comprehensive physical barriers in Waller is even more dangerous, because types of catheters like bladder catheter (or other types of catheters that may be placed in pelvic regions) are often soiled with stool because given their proximity to excretive functional areas on the human body. The deficiencies of Waller are further compounded by the difficulty medical professional would encounter when removing the protective barrier during necessary catheter adjustments and other procedures which require access to the entire length of the catheter.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to have an improved device and/or method of reducing catheter infection rates, especially one which more comprehensive protective coverage of catheter surface areas up to and including most of the whole catheter, such that the covered portion of the catheter therein remains sterile no matter what the type of catheter or the physical application thereof on a patient. It would also be advantageous to provide for an approach which not only defeats the surface area migration of microbes (including MRSA resistant strains thereof) into suture sites, but also is has the ability to provide, if desired, for ease of removal by medical professionals when adjusting catheters (and the maintenance of the sterility thereof during said removal), and might also provide for supplemental protections such site irrigation and/or sterility maintenance through inert gas infusion therein.